The territory could be asked to investigate Whitehorse city staff for the information it presented to council on second-hand smoke when it was considering whether to go ahead with the city-wide smoking ban.

While the ban took effect in 2004, bars and a Porter Creek billiards establishment were given a year's grace from implementing the bylaw, until January 2005.

Local resident Brian Salmi proposed the idea at a meeting he hosted Wednesday night at the Whitehorse Public Library.

He noted there's a provision in the territorial Municipal Act for the minister of Community Services currently Glenn Hart to order an investigation into the conduct of city council.

Salmi suggested smokers and bar workers who have been impacted by the ban should approach Hart to ask for an investigation into whether council was misled by staff in the information presented on secondhand smoke.

'We have every right to do that,' he told the approximately 30 people who turned out for the meeting.

'Now if the minister decides, for whatever reason, that he doesn't want to launch an investigation, there's also provisions under the Municipal Act that if we get the signatures of 20 per cent of the populace of this municipality to sign a petition, an investigation has to be ordered by law.'

That means staff who prepared reports for council will be looked at, and how they missed the fact there's a currently a scientific debate about the health hazards of second hand smoke, Salmi said.

'Now I may be wrong about this, but if it's found staff deliberately withheld this information from council, they can be fired for that,' he said.

'Council will then not have any ability to say they were ignorant. It will be in their face and they will be forced to reopen a debate.'

The group decided to meet again at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Capital Hotel to decide exactly what strategy to take.

In an interview after the Wednesday meeting, Salmi said he expects Hart could be approached within the next week about the proposed investigation.

'I've got all the evidence already, anyway,' he said.

Neither city manager Bill Newell nor Hart could be reached for comment on Salmi's proposal.

Salmi also suggested to the group there's no reason they can't have some fun in working to get the bylaw turned around.

'I would also recommend that one of the reasons anti-smokers get away with what they're getting away with is because we have been marginalized and ostracized and demonized,' he said.

He suggested a smokers' group could be formed that focuses on the public good, perhaps raising funds for the Canadian Cancer Society to find a cure for lung cancer, for example.

'All of the sudden, we remove the horns from ourselves because smokers are in every element of society,' Salmi said.

'There's smokers in every organization in this city, in this territory, in this country.

'I mean, we are everywhere. We're not just some small band of chain-smoking social rejects who don't get involved with the communities that we live in.'

Doing such work wouldn't be just for 'getting the anti-smokers off our backs, but because they're also the right things to do,' he added.

While Salmi discussed initiatives the group could take together, Pat Copeland, who attended the meeting, pointed to some individual action smokers could take.

'I'm not paying my taxes until this is resolved in the courts,' he said, adding it should be up to the owner of the establishment to decide what patrons can do.

'The second thing is, I don't support any other city facilities or municipal buildings, sporting events, even this library really. I stay out of it,' he said.

'If at all possible, I park way downtown so I don't put money into their coffers. I don't think it's right.'

Copeland suggested both smokers and non-smokers have rights.

'I have rights,' he said. 'Non-smokers have rights too. And one right they got is any one of them can open up a bar, a casino, a restaurant and conduct business.'

While others suggested petitioning the city to change the smoking bylaw, the other option considered was legal action.

As Salmi noted though, bar owners have legal counsel and are preparing to fight the bylaw in court.

The '98 Hotel, Sam McGees Bar and Grill at the 202 Motor Inn, the Skyjacker Lounge opposite the Whitehorse airport and the Capital Hotel are facing charges of breaking the smoking bylaw. Court appearances for the bars are scheduled throughout May and June.

At Wednesday night's meeting, Salmi pointed to a number of cases in the U.S. where people haven't gotten a job or have been fired for not submitting to blood and urine testing at work for smoking. He suggested similar situations could soon be in Canada.

He pointed to the more than $6 million that cigarette taxes are expected to bring into the territory this year. That can pay the entire budget of running the Yukon legislature, he suggested.

Salmi also noted the ongoing campaign of 'denormalizing' smokers through various websites and media messages by lobby groups and Health Canada.